Postcards by Wood-Block Printer T. Tokuriki

These are wood block printed postcards published by Tomikichiro Tokuriki (1902-1999). Tokuriki was both a print maker and a teacher. He is known mainly for his non-postcard prints.

I have not been able to find much information specifically about these Tokuriki postcard prints. I believe that most (possibly all) of these prints represent temples and other scenes of Kyoto, Japan where Tokuriki worked.  This following description of Tokuriki is from the metropostcard.com list of postcard publishers:

A woodblock artist who produced both prints and postcards. He came came from a long line of artists dating back to the late 16th century,. Tokuriki worked in two distinct styles, sosaku hanga, a contemporary revival of traditional Japanese techniques and designs, and shin hanga, a woodblock style that incorporated modern Western stylistic elements. Most of his images were produced by the large publishers Uchida and Unsodo, though he did publish some postcards under his own name. They usually have writing on the back in English for they were oriented toward an American audience as the shin hanga style never became very popular in Japan.

These postcards are postwar productions, mainly from the 1950s and 1960s. The earliest one that I can date was postally used in 1954, has “T. Tokuriki” printed on the front, and has a different style back than the others.  All cards except the last six shown in the gallery are standard size 3½” X 5½”. Two have the cardstock trimmed to approximately 4-1/8″ X 4-5/8″.  The last four are approximately 4-1/8″ X 4-5/8″ and have a newer style postcard back.

I cannot read Japanese, so I can only identify a couple that have names of the scene printed in English. Most have some Japanese writing on the front, and some also have what appear to be artist seals. I don’t know whether the designs were all created by Tokuriki or by various other artists.

The gallery includes some duplicates that were included to show how different prints of the same design can vary.

I would welcome information relating to Tokuriki’s postcards and identification by anyone able to read the Japanese characters printed on the fronts of most of the postcards.

postally used 1966

“Honenin”

postally used 1957

“T. TOKURIKI” postally used 1954

postally used 1957

“Choin,KYOTO”

“RAKUSHISYA”

maximum card made with a Tukuriki postcard and a 1959 Geisha stamp

back of 1954 Tokuriki postcard

back of most Tokuriki postcards

back of “trimmed” Tokuriki postcards

back of modern size Tokuriki postcards

Below are two postcard print folders. The first contained four standard size Tokuriki postcards when I bought it. The second contained two trimmed Tokuriki postcards and two modern size Uchida published postcards.

wood block print postcard folder

wood block print postcard folder

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